Terrier

Have you seen those plastic terriers for sale, the ones with just a rear end and a tail in the air?

I don't need to buy one, I've got the real thing. She's a smooth fox terrier and she gets as much enjoyment out of the garden as I do, only in a different way. She's allowed to dig in the area kept for bonfires and does so energetically and with imagination, head cocked, listening for a mole or a mouse that isn't there. Then follows frantic action with soil sent flying from under her front paws. In no time at all she looks the very model of  half a plastic dog.

The garden is her territory and she is on constant patrol, anything that moves would be wise to consider moving well out of her way; seeing off blackbirds, pigeons, squirrels, cats and the postman, her duties never stop.

The clump of creeping thyme is in flower and this is her favourite place to doze in good weather. Luckily it's a resilient plant. Sometimes she runs round the house and garden at speed, dizzy with delight or dances on the lawn in the moonlight.

Moon Dancing

Like an astronaut

in darkness

her white body leaps

weightless

and the worms hear her

rise from their sleep

up through the earth

they come to see

running and jumping 

across the lawn

my small dog dancing

in the moonlight.

After all that action she's ready to fall asleep in her basket.